Water temp and finding fish?

Been wandering the net and here’s what I’ve found so far.

Most have been these numbers or close to them.
45-55
40-52
Below 55
52 or less

No definite answer as I thought, but so far has me leaning to wards between 40 and 50 degree’s, finding lots of variables in how to fish for them and am trying to get them all listed for next year.

Also some mention of surface temp being more/as important but not sure why.

More of a learning curve than I thought.

Wondering if one of the speed/temp probes might be worth the money now?
Al

Nobody has any thoughts on water temp???

Al

If I lived on the big water and made a living of guiding clients, I might be inclined to spend the money on all of the bells and whistles one can see added to the charters. The boat a buddy and I have gotten rigged right now has electric riggers and sports a serious locator plus an add-on gps in addition to the one found in the locator. The add-on gps has way more precise speed read-out. We do fine by locating fish and working what we see on the graph by changing speed, changing trolling direction and by changing depth slightly on marked fish that are stubborn. I can’t see where spending another 300 clams to know if the water is .4 of a degree warm or colder will make fish hit any better for us and the extra rigging just means something more to go on the fritz right when you think you need it most.

I see an awful lot of smaller boats with simplistic rigging that come to the dock consistently with more fish than some of the charters. I think at some point having all of this stuff jammed into a boat starts to take away from a person’s ability to find and catch fish because too much emphasis is dumped into the technology and not enough time is spent learning about the fish a guy chases. And one other problem exists here….if the fish don’t want to hit or won’t respond to anything, what good did all that money invested do you? Take the money you were going to lay out for the temp monitor and go buy a nice selction of trolling baits.

I know what your saying Tom, but it seems fish tend to like certain water temps or are more active in certain temps.

Also this may be dependent on seasons too??

That is what I’m after, trying to cut the learning curve down a bit.

I don’t get up to Superior as often as I want, so that learning curve is going to take quite awhile, you guys have helped with tackle, now I just need a bit of help finding where the fish like to be at normally, lots of water out there to just go looking.

Not sure if knowing the temps is going to help much or not, but I need all the help I can get.

Not sure if that makes sense or not.

Or…I might just have to much time on my hands right now..

Al

Lake Superior around Duluth/Superior has very very little structure so the 3 biggest things that I find influenece where Im going to fish are wind, water temps and bait fish.
So having a tool that will give you a better reading of temps at different depths can often be a game changer. I dont know how many times I have been fishing 20′ to high or low and find out later from friends with a temp probe that I should have ben fishing a different depth because od a temp break. To each his own but I believe in having as much and the best equipment you can afford to use.

Quote:

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the 3 biggest things that I find influenece where Im going to fish are wind, water temps and bait fish…..
So having a tool that will give you a better reading of temps at different depths can often be a game changer.

I believe in having as much and the best equipment you can afford to use.

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Sound advice.

In lieu of the temp probe we put more $$ into the locator which shows us the bait fish when they are schooled and does a superb job on the fish we are after. We often find shoals of baitfish in slighly deeper water with large fish ether below or behind the pod off bait so adjustments can be made almost instantly to the rigger depth. As Steve has mentioned, its all in personal preference as to what works for each individual.

If a person is targeting the upper 20 feet of the water column, one thing to watch for is a large, meandering slick. Find one of these that runs for a couple miles and troll right in it. Slicks are an anomoly in the water that are created by wind, subtle current and water that is either slightly warmer or slightly cooler than the water around them. Slicks hold lots of insect life and often create that slight bend in water temps that certain fish may find favorable, but slicks don’t often run very deep so near-surface fishing techniques work great….shallower dipsys/jet divers, snap weights or in-line torpedo weights and long lining. Boards and masts work great in slicks since the peripheral water at the edges of the slicks can be worked at the same time as the center of the slick. Slicks are good at any time of the year, but in the fall, as in now, they tend to be best.

Thanks guys, considering I have a 1198 HB on the dash now, there will be no updates on electronics for awhile, long while I’m hoping.

What I’m looking for is starting points, I’ve gotten a lot of help on tackle here so I have a pretty good starting point there, boat is ok and seems to work well, and I can usually find out where along the north shore I should be…kinda.

What I don’t know (well, there’s a lot I don’t know) is at what depth either salmon or trout are normally sitting, and with that I can set up the lines for that first attack.

Don’t know what kind of can of worms this is, but I’m hoping there is some kind of basic numbers to start with.

I can look for bait fish on the graph, run several baits depending on reports and my theory on starting with natural baits and see what happens, but in 100,300 or 500 fow I’d like a starting point for depth, lotta water out there..

Al